When goods are being transported by airfreight they are typically loaded onto pallets and secured in place using a suitable pallet net. Once the load is secured on a pallet it may be loaded into the cargo hold of an aircraft. One such net is disclosed in WO 02/062619 A1. The pallet net is of generally conventional cruciform construction and comprises a main panel which overlies the load in use and a plurality of wing panels which hang down against the sides of the load. The bottom edge of each wing panel is provided with a plurality of double stud fittings which can be secured to a complimentary seat track on the pallet. Each side edge of the wing panels meets with an adjacent side edge to define a net corner. The net corners are releasably secured using any suitable means. In the pallet net disclosed in WO 02/062619 A1 the net includes a plurality of corner securement devices which may be utilised to close the corner and secure the load onto the pallet net for transportation. In other known nets the corner may be secured by means of a lashing line which extends from the main panel between the side panels and may be threaded between adjacent side panels to secure the corner.
Cargo pallet covers are commonly used to cover a load built up on a pallet for transportation. The pallet cover serves to provide some form of additional protection to the load, typically to protect the load from the elements. The additional protection may take a wide variety of forms, for example it may serve to provide a waterproof barrier layer, a thermal insulation layer, an electrical insulation layer, impact protection, or any other properties which may be required for the specific load being transported. Alternatively, the pallet cover may take the form of fireproofing for the load to prevent a fire spreading from the load to other items stored in the cargo hold. A wide variety of pallet covers are known and the material properties will vary depending on the protection required for the specific load. Once the load has been built up on the pallet the pallet cover is placed on top of the load and the combination of load and cover is secured to the pallet by a pallet net in the manner described above.
Currently available pallet covers are known to function well, but a number of problems exist, most notably with their handling and use on irregular shaped loads. When a load requires to be protected by a conventional pallet cover it adds an extra step into the loading procedure. Rather than simply placing the load on a pallet and securing it with a pallet net, it must also be covered by a pallet cover. This extra step takes additional time which can amount to a significant amount of time when the huge number of goods transported in this manner is taken into account.
Standard pallet covers will typically be manufactured from a textile material and will generally comprise a rectangular main panel which overlies the load in use and a plurality of rectangular side panels which hang down against the sides of the load. When the load is of a regular rectangular shape then the pallet cover will simply adapt to the shape of the load. However, it is quite common for the load to be of an irregular shape (typically one side will be higher than the other). Standard pallet nets are provided with reefing hooks which are used to take up any slack in the net material caused by irregular loads. When the load is of an irregular shape the pallet cover tends to bunch up and is also prone to hang below the bottom of the pallet. This can cause problems in securing the pallet net and can be time consuming to resolve for operators.